January 25, 2011

Chicago man wears Packers tie to work, is promptly fired: From Chicago's WGNtv.com comes the unfortunately real story of a Chicago car salesman who was fired because he wore a Green Bay Packers tie to work. And making it even worse, the man wore it because his grandma was a Packers fan who had recently died and was buried two days before her beloved team's NFC Championship game matchup with the Chicago Bears.

I heard this story, but with a few more details, earlier. The grandmother excuse is lame--it's just a cheap attempt to get some sympathy. He wore the tie because he wanted to celebrate the Packers' victory, and that's fine. Now, I hope his boss didn't consider him to be an especially valuable employee, as this is a dumb thing to fire someone over, but if this guy (as a car salesman) is physically interacting with customers, then his employer certainly has a right to decide that his dress is inappropriate.

Send the guy home, tell him to change his tie before coming back to work, dock him for time missed. Helluva lot cheaper for the company than paying out unemployment benefits or a wrongful termination lawsuit.

I'm just not that sympathetic. If I went to buy a car at a dealership in my hometown on the day after my team lost to a heated rival, and I was confronted with that tie, I would just go to a different car dealership. I would also probably never return. So, in light of people like me who take being fans too seriously, it was probably a wise move on the dealerships part. Furthermore, he was given the option to remove the tie and chose not to do so. He clearly takes his allegiance to his team far too seriously as well.

From reading the article, the sales rep was fired for insubordination, in that he was asked to remove the tie twice, and refused. I'm not buying his line about thinking that the boss was joking. Not really buying the Grandma bit either.

Now, all that being said, I will agree that a wise boss handles this differently, making sure it doesn't become a news story. However, I have terminated workers for dress code violations, one time on the first offense. (One shouldn't alter a company's logo into a overtly sexual symbol without expecting repercussions). You might be surprised how often people will jeopardize their jobs over relatively minor dress code issues.

I'm guessing that the dealership isn't north of town, closer to the Wisconsin line, where there are pockets of Packer zealots ready to rise to the occasion.

I'm getting a kick out of the rise of Caleb Hanie out of all this. Cutler is admittedly not a good cultural fit for the Bears (a big brawny Rust Belt guy like Roethlisberger would totally own a Bears uni), but Caleb Hanie is a name right out of a lost episode of Green Acres.

A Texas boy showing some promise running the Bears offense? Next thing you know, some swimming hole rope swinger from Mississippi will be trying to make a name for himself up in Green Bay or Minneapolis.